How To Make A Decent Tribute
by Wingbeats on the Wind
Summary: Like the title says, it's a guide to making a good tribute. Just come in and check it out. You might find it enlightening.
1. On Names

So, I've been surfing around fanfictions and forums, and I realized that a lot of tributes are not exactly up to par. They were too perfect, or too much like a Mary-Sue. Now, probably a lot of people wouldn't even notice them. But I do, and I know some people that certainly do.

Your tribute may not have that many problems. Your character may actually be perfect. But I think that a lot of people could benefit from reading something like this.

This may also turn in to a rant of mine on the imperfections of tributes, actual characters, and plot holes. But I'm going to try to avoid that.

Another note: This does not necessarily apply only to Hunger Games tributes. Most of it could probably be applied to different characters from different fandoms. But, here, it will be for the Hunger Games.

So, my basic plan is to go down an average tribute submission form. Therefore, my first chapter will be on names.

Names can vary throughout the Districts or place the character comes from. In the Hunger Games, it seems as though a large part of the names depend on the principal industry of the District. For example, a District 1 tribute would have a glitzy name like Jewel or Star or Glow. Someone from 11 would have a more plantsy or naturey name, say, Mallow or Rye. Naturally, there would be some exceptions to this, but the majority of the names follow this rule.

District Twelve seems fairly exempt from this rule. Then again, there aren't many names associated with coal mining. Mine cart? Pickaxe? Headlamp? Yeah... no.

For the Career Districts or the Capitol, a safe bet is usually a name from mythology or Shakespeare, as long as it's not overused. Since District 1, 2, 4, and the Capitol are so extravagant, the tributes can have fairly ridiculous names. Even so, there are some rules you should follow.

1. Never use more than four names. Even three names is annoying. Only use more than three names for the Careers and the Capitol. Titles are an exception. Even so, even in a Career district, no one really wants a name like Glitz Sparkle GlowGlow Junior. You should never include the middle name at all unless the tribute goes by that as a nickname.

2. Never use animals in the tribute's name. Parker Lonewolf. George Falcon. Panther Smith. They sound kind of stupid, they're completely unrealistic, and some poor panther somewhere is going to be hiding in shame because Panther Rainbowdash Lily the Fifth is fighting in the Games somewhere.

3. It is a very bad idea to give a character a super "powerful" name. No Stryker, no Red Eagle, no Thunderfist, no Moonblast. They look even stupider then the animal names. No real parent would name their child something like that.

4. While on the subject of Thunderfist and Moonblast, you should never give your character a double name. Unless they so happen to be a Warrior cat, in which case that's a bit of a requirement. But in the Hunger Games, I beg you not to give your character a name like Sunglow, Blossommagic, Lilyrosedew, et cetera. This extends to duplicate names, like the Glowglow mentioned above.

5. Try not to make a first or last name longer than ten letters.

If you follow these basic rules, then we won't end up with any Glitter Kitten Purplefrost Moonheart Helvetica StarStar Queenie Chrysanthemum the Eighteenths. God forbid.

Now, I'm not saying that your character can NEVER have a name like this. But I seriously suggest that you steer clear of such names.

And please, never name your poor tribute Headlamp.

I guess that concludes my Names section. I might add more later as I think of it. Next time: Appearance! I'll also do a short part on Age and District, which aren't really very important.

I hope you found this enlightening. Reviews? Comments? Flames? Anything?


	2. Appearances and a few other things

So, I got a lot of love and support for the first chapter, and it totally made my day. So I decided to update this chapter quickly. In this chapter, we'll be covering small things like Age and District, but also we'll be tackling the mighty mountain of Appearances.

I can not even express how many bad appearances I get. There are a bunch of different reasons that a problem would occur with your tribute's appearance, and so it's my duty to go over them. But first I have to deal with Age and District.

I would deal with Gender, too, because that's high up on most tribute forms, but I can't really find a problem with Gender, can you?

There aren't many problems with the categories Age and District.

However, keep this in mind.

The majority of the tributes reaped for the games WILL be older. It's not just that I like writing for older tributes, but seriously, the younger people have less slips entered. Unless they're a twelve-year-old who collects tesserae for their thirteen siblings because their poor mother decided to have fourteen kids and then leave them upon said twelve-year-old to take care of. That. Never. Happens. Even in District 1, I doubt many people have more than three kids, and in District 1, people don't need tesserae. No one is insane enough to have many kids in poorer districts. Well, Hazelle excepted, I suppose. But I have to question her judgment in having all those kids.

For District:

People can be from whatever District you want, sure. Keep in mind that people don't volunteer, like, ever, in places like 12. Well, Katniss excepted. Because apparently there are a lot of exceptions in District 12. And if your tribute is from a Career District, there's almost no chance that they were reaped. Everyone wants a chance for glory in the Career Districts. Also, remember that your tribute's name might be affected by their District.

Alright, enough on that. Let's move on to Appearances.

"Elizabeth Kayo has perfect, long, blonde, wavy hair, and full lips. Her eyes are bright rainbow with really long lashes. Her perfect skin seems to glow in some light. She's got curves in all the right places, and really long legs. She's super skinny, but not anorexic, and she has a perfect fashion sense. She dresses so beautifully that all of the boys in town follow her around and flirt with her, as if her perfect body wasn't enough."

The phrase "Curves in all the right places" automatically makes this a bad character description. Your character can have nice blonde hair and long lashes, but never, ever, ever, EVER say "curves in all the right places." Oh, yes, and no rainbow eyes either.

People aren't born perfect. That was... what? Bullying lesson #1? Everyone is different, and EVERYONE naturally has some flaws in his/her appearance. Unless they had extreme plastic surgery. Obviously, plastic surgery is only really an option in the Capitol and the Career Districts, and even then, not many people have it. Teenagers especially do not have it. So people will have scars. They will have pimples. They will have ugly birthmarks. They will have big noses or big ears or thin lips. And that's ok. Obviously, I'm not telling you to announce your tribute's every freckle. But just don't make your tribute absolutely perfect.

Attractiveness is never a weapon. Sure, your character can try to distract someone. But will a really big, strong, bloodthirsty Career tribute be stopped by attractiveness? I think not. TRIBUTE 1 uses FLIRT. It is not very effective. TRIBUTE 1 faints. Like that. No one ever wants to see a "Elizabeth blew a kiss at the big, angry, tribute from District 1. The tribute dropped his sword and gaped openmouthed at her beauty and perfection. He was so entranced by her beauty that he joined up with her, killed all the other tributes for her, then killed himself so she could win, because, obviously, she was so amazingly beautiful that she deserved to win." Awfulness in a paragraph.

Next, the predominant hair color is BROWN, people. Not blonde, nor pitch-black, nor sky blue, nor glow-in-the-dark. The way I sometimes think people see it is that 90 percent of the tributes have wacky hair colors, or at least recessive ones. How many people do you see with naturally blue hair, anyways?

And then, we move on to hairstyle. If you have four feet of hair attached to your skull, don't think that people won't grab it and yank said tribute around with it. If Elizabeth Kayo wants to survive in the Arena, I would STRONGLY suggest cutting it off. If your tribute can't bear to part with her hair, just expect her to get grabbed by the hair once or twice.

I called the tribute a her in the above statement. Don't get me wrong, boys can have long hair too. But I think that most of them have the right idea in keeping it short. They won't get grabbed or tied to a tree by their hair or anything.

Next: Eyes!

Rainbow. Eyes. Do. Not. Occur. Naturally.

Ever.

Neither do yellow eyes. Or pink. Or acid green or silver or gold or glow-in-the-dark or red (albinism excepted). Just like with hair, brown is the dominant eye color. Again, you can have blue eyes or green eyes. They're just not as common. Actually, it turns out that purple eyes do, in fact, occur naturally. It's very, very, VERY rare, though.

A slightly unrelated note on eyes- A lot of people have to wear glasses in the world today. There is no difference in Panem. As far as I know, the Capitol has not thought of a cure for nearsightedness or farsightedness. Therefore, some people WILL wear glasses, or at least contacts (both of which can cause problems in the Arena).

On skin tone: People from Eleven are thought to be mostly African-American. Just a note. People from the Seam in Twelve have olive complexions. People from Four are likely to be tanned. Of course, there are exceptions, but there is in just about everything else, too.

Next, not everyone is super tall, super skinny, super short, super fat, or super anything. Average weight and average height actually mean AVERAGE. Meaning most of the people are similar to the average. Because IT IS THE AVERAGE. AND TO BE THE AVERAGE, MANY PEOPLE MUST BE SIMILAR TO IT. That's the way it works, believe it or not. So people actually are average height, and average weight, and have average sword skills, average running skills, et cetera.

So, while we're on that, I'll also talk about build. Some people are strong. Some people are weak. Some people are willowy. Some people are built like gnus. That's just the way they are. When choosing a character's build, you should also think of their skills. If they can run fast, they obviously aren't laden down with tons of muscle. If they use a club or a mace, they probably ARE laden down with tons of muscle.

That's probably actually about all I can think of just about now. I might add more later. I hope you got something out of it, again.

Next time, I'll do personality! Lots of stuff for me to criticize!


	3. Personalities

Hi there. This is the third chapter of my guide to making a good tribute, and here I'll be talking about personality.

Personality is one of the hardest aspects of making a tribute. There are a few smaller things, though, that can make your tribute's personality better.

Never limit your character's personality to a few adjectives. If your character can be described as, "funny, quirky, fun to be around", then you've already got a problem. I have a friend who dislikes the entire idea of the personality section, which I think is rather wise. She likes to instead go over aspects of her character's personality in other parts of the tribute form. That method works just as well, in my opinion.

Part of the problem with personality is that it's a very loose term. Any aspect of your character's life could affect his or her personality.

For example, Elizabeth Kayo's incredible gorgeousness could make her snooty, stuck up, and detached from people that aren't as perfect as her. Our unfortunate Headlamp's awful name could have caused bullying at school, which might make him violent and lonely. Stuff like that happens. Not everyone has a totally perfect personality. Everyone has problems, no matter how small, and that can affect your tribute's personality.

I'm actually having trouble with this. A tribute's personality can really be just about anything, as long as they have some personality flaws. The important thing to remember is to not make it very concise. Explain, explain, explain! Especially if your character's is going to be written by someone. You want to give as much information as you can, so that the writer can really think inside of that character's head.

You also have to remember to add depth to your character. You need layers and layers of emotions and thoughts. Complexity is a part of any person. You can't just say that your character is a psycho killer. Explain how your character has always found an attraction in killing, and loves being in control of other people's lives. Explain how he always staggers back when about to kill a helpless child, because he remembers his little sister, killed by the Peacekeepers. Because of how the Peacekeepers killed his sister, he hates the Capitol with a fury and that is part of what motivates him to kill.

Ok, bad example, but I'm sure you get the drift. If you end up with one sentence for your character's personality, you should know that you need to rethink something.

Like I said, I don't really have all that much to say about personality. If you think I've forgotten something, you should tell me in a PM or review. I'll add it in. I believe that next time I'll be dealing with history and family. Probably. I have a lot of stuff to say about that... Heh heh heh. I'll try to be faster updating next time, too.


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